Viewing "Bench and Bar of St. Paul." (1899).

On Thursday, November 9, 1899, the "St. Paul Pioneer Press" celebrated its 50th anniversary by publishing a large commemorative edition that included a two-part section on the city's courts and lawyers. After a feeble overview of the territorial period and a few years after statehood, thirty-six judges, law firms and lawyers were profiled. They were a diverse lot: pioneers such as Thomas Wilson, Henry Moss and Henry Horn, established lawyers such as Greenleaf Clark, the O'Brien brothers, and Hiram Stevens, up-and-comers such as David Peebles and William Westfall, and sitting judges such as Walter Sanborn, Hascal Brill and George Bunn.

It is easy to dismiss the lawyers' profiles as paid advertisements. They should not. Occasionally one provides a glimpse---it may not be much more than that---into the practice of law at century's end.